Spatial patterns of human land-use from surface collections in NW Mongolia

Summary

The spatial distributions of artifacts from different periods of time reveal change in the nature and intensity of human activities in different kinds of places. This is particularly useful when trying to establish how patterns of human mobility and land-use evolved during periods of dramatic environmental or economic change. The Uvs Nuur Basin of northwest Mongolia played host to both. Here, the distribution of glaciers, vegetation zones, and lake systems changed rapidly from the late Pleistocene through the early Holocene, encouraging novel adaptive strategies from humans and animals alike, while the adoption of an economy focused on domestic animals forever transformed the biota and stability of the landscape. Preliminary results of an intensive surface survey point to patterns of change in human mobility, interaction, and production in two distinct regions, providing unique insight on the prehistoric human ecology of the Uvs Nuur Basin and similar regions of northern central Asia, ca. 40.0 – 4.0 k B.P.

This Resource is Part of the Following Collections

• Society for American Archaeology 82nd Annual Meeting, Vancouver, BC (2017)   •
• Human, Animal, and Environmental Interaction in Northeast Asia

Keywords

Spatial Coverage

Record Identifiers

Abstract Id(s): 16805